


The Heir Apparent

by virgo_writer



Series: Sixteen-by-Eight Feet [6]
Category: Make It or Break It
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Family, Future Fic, Gen, Gymnastics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-13
Updated: 2011-01-13
Packaged: 2020-09-01 20:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20263969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virgo_writer/pseuds/virgo_writer
Summary: Caitlin wished she had a better story to tell. 16x8 Universe. Payson/Sasha.





	The Heir Apparent

**Author's Note:**

> Original Authors Note: A/N: This is not the chapter I was meaning to write. I wanted to write on Caitlin, because obviously you don't see much of her and I wanted to write her testing the boundaries with Sasha a bit. Instead, I ended up writing about Caitlin and Dru, and about what an awesome big brother he is to his two adorable little sisters.

_August 2037_

Caitlin wished she had a better story to tell. 

Her mother talked about the start of her gymnastics career like some grand love story, which she supposed it kind of was in a slightly worrisome way. She’d been sitting at her old home in Minnesota watching the Sydney Olympics, and at the end of the Men’s All-Around competition she decided two things. Firstly, she was going to be an Olympic Champion. And Secondly, she was going to marry that beautiful man with the gold medal.

Once Payson Keeler set her mind to something, she would not be swayed or deterred. In 2012, she succeeded in becoming the Olympic Champion and four years later she married the man who made her fall in love with the sport, first when she was a little girl, and then all over again after she broke her back. It was sort of . . . epic.

And Caitlin supposed that was why everyone was always asking her about how she came to love gymnastics. She was, after all, the daughter of two Olympic gymnasts and people wanted to hear how the two had moulded her into the gymnast she was today. 

Her story was bound to disappoint them. 

Her parents had never pushed her towards the sport and never even brought up the possibility of her doing gymnastics until she asked them if she could. They never assumed that doing gymnastics meant going to the Olympics, even when her promise as a gymnast made that a very real possibility. She hadn’t even a clue how impressive her parents were until her brother pointed to the trophy case one day and casually informed her that those were their parents’ Olympic gold medals on display – all eight of them. That was the day she decided she wanted to be an Olympian.

In some ways, the story of how she fell in love with gymnastics wasn’t all that different from her mother’s. She was nearly five at the time, and sitting on her grandfather’s lap as she watched her big brother swing around the pommel horse under the watchful eye of both their parents. She was at that age where she thought anything and everything that her brother did was impressive, but gymnastics was at a whole new level of astonishment.

“Can I do that?” she asked in a small, awed voice, whipping her head around towards her grandfather. Her grandpa shook his head, chuckling lowly and declaring her to be just like her mother.

“You can do that, though,” he said gently, pointing to one of the elite girls in the gym who was performing a piked jaeger on the uneven bars. Caitlin wasn’t interested.

“Why can’t I do it like Sandu?” she asked, her lips wobbling at the thought of not being allowed to something her brother could. Her grandparents smiled and explained as best they could – just as they had to their own daughter nearly thirty years earlier – that it was just how things worked. The girls did one set of events, and the boys did another set of events. She was disappointed, but still it was enough to make her fall in love with the sport, just as her mother had.

She loved the floor best of all. People liked to think it was because of her mother – because that had been Payson Keeler's best event and the one that proved to the world that she was truly back – but really it came from it being one of only two events that both she and Sandu could compete on, albeit in slightly different ways.

Which is why she was so heartbroken by the news Dru had been saving until after the Junior National Championship. He was quitting gymnastics.

Their parents smiled softly, not all that surprised by the news, and Daciana told him he was weird for wanting to give up gymnastics so he could spend more time studying (to be a journalist of all things). Caitlin stood slowly from her seat and walked calmly to her room without a word to her brother, the door slamming behind her to indicate how upset she was about this.

“Caitlin,” Dru called through the door, knocking gently against the wood. She silently refused to pay him any attention until he resorted to the old nickname he’d given her as a baby. “Haide, Cati. Let me in.”

“No,” she cried back at him, sitting cross-legged on her bed with her arms around the large stuffed bear he’d bought her before he went away to Stanford last year. She buried her head in the soft fur, letting it damp up her tears. “You’re leaving me behind.”

“Cati,” he said gently, his affection obvious. “I’m not leaving you behind, soră. If anything, you’re leaving me behind, Little Miss National Champion,” he added more playfully, hoping that reminding her of the win might raise her spirits.

His only reply was a loud sniff on the other side. “C’mon, Caitlin,” he tried again. “Let me in so I can explain.”

“It’s open,” she called back eventually, refusing to move from her position. Knowing that was the best he was going to get, Dru stepped in cautiously, eying his little sister sympathetically.

“Cati,” he said softly, taking a seat on the end of her bed, “you’ve gotta know that this wasn’t easy for me. I thought about it for awhile and I knew you’d be unhappy with me, but – “

“Then you shouldn’t have done it,” Caitlin cut in childishly, tempted to throw something at her stupid big brother. “You said we’d got the Olympics together.”

He nodded slowly, understanding that he’d hurt her. “We will, Cati,” he promised her. “You’ll go to the Olympics and I’ll be your biggest supporter. I’ll have a whole section of the stadium to myself just so I can fit all the stuff I need to cheer you on,” he said with a stupid grin that always made her forgive him when she was mad at him.

“It won’t be the same,” she protested.

“I know, Cate,” he sighed quietly. “I just . . . I was never like you and Mum and Dad. You guys _love_ gymnastics. It’s what you were always meant to do.

“For me,” he continued, smiling wanly. “I liked it and I was good at it, but it was just something I did for fun. I didn’t love it. And when I couldn’t do it with you and Mum and Dad and Daci . . . it wasn’t even fun anymore.”

Caitlin nodded her head, trying her best to understand what it was her brother was saying to her. He wasn’t the only person to leave the sport like that, but somehow she’d kidded herself into believing that her brother would always have a place with her in gymnastics even as so many others left it behind to pursue other interests. 

“I just feel like you’re abandoning me, Sandu,” she sobbed, crumbling a little under the weight of what that meant. “You’re leaving me behind.”

“Never, Cati,” he promised, pulling his little sister into a tight hug. “I’ll always be your big brother, Cati. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

She laughed a little, relieved by his promise. “Now are you okay, or do I have to send Dad in here to talk to you?” he asked, his expression serious but his eyes full of mirth.

She raised her chin and set her lips firmly. “Of course I’m okay. I am the Junior National Champion, after all.”

“You are, Cati,” Dru agreed. “And in three years time you’re going to be the Olympic Champion and I’m gonna be the proudest big brother on the planet.”

Come 2040 Caitlin Belov would be the National, World, and Olympic Gymnastics Champion, and Dru would be taking down every word, making sure that people knew just how brilliant his little sister was.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Translation:  
soră: sister  
Haide, Cati: Come on, Cati. 


End file.
